Nazi Germany

Refers to Germany during the period from 1933 to 1945, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP). The official designation of Nazi Germany as the "Third Reich" was intended to place the Nazi regime in a 1000-year historical lineage, reaching back to the Holy Roman Empire (Heiliges Römisches Reich, 800-1806) and the German Empire (Deutsches Kaiserreich, from 1871-1919).

Nazi Germany was characterized by extreme German nationalism and a racist world view that emphasized racial purity and the superiority of the "Aryan" race. Antisemitism was central to Nazi ideology and led to the systematic persecution of Jews, beginning with the curtailment of civil rights and progressing to systematic mass murder in the Holocaust. Other groups deemed "undesirable" and persecuted included Sinti and Roma, disabled people, political opponents, homosexual men, and others.

The state's use of propaganda and censorship, as well as the normalization of state violence, served to control public opinion and suppress opposition to the regime. Nazi Germany was highly militarized and pursued aggressive expansionist policies, annexing the Sudetenland and Austria before its invasion of Poland in September 1939 initiated World War II.